A Tale of Seddie
by MobBob
Summary: After years of fighting and passive-agressive bickering, Sam and Freddie get together. However, they soon break up. Why didn't it work out for them and can they get back together? Essay.


**A/N: I didn't write this because I hate the Seddie ship. My issue is with the writing, not the ship. If the show had handled the Creddie ship the same way, I'd be complaining about it too. If I'm being honest, I wasn't really into shipping for iCarly. Don't walk away from this essay thinking it's pro-Creddie or Anti-Seddie.**

I'm a fan of _iCarly_. I'm also a fan of _Victorious_. Of the two, I think _iCarly _was the better show by a large margin. However, there's one thing I think _Victorious_ did better than _iCarly_. That is how _Victorious _handled Jade and Beck's relationship (Bade) when compared to how _iCarly _handled Sam and Freddie's relationship (Seddie). The Bade and Seddie relationships had some similarities. Both were troubled relationships, with the female partner (Jade and Sam) being domineering. The big difference between the two was how the writing handled the couples. _Victorious_ acknowledged that Bade was unhealthy, namely that Jade was too possessive and controlling of Beck. The episode "Worst Couple" focused on their problems and ended with Beck and Jade breaking up. Afterwards, Jade underwent character development. The episode "Opposite Date" had her be less jealous and accept that Beck would now see other girls. When the two got back together, it did seem like Jade had changed. Now, that's not to say I don't have any problems with Jade characterization. There were plenty of episodes that felt like a step backwards for her character, especially with how she treated Tori. However, in general, it felt like Jade's character was toned down.

When you compare this to how _iCarly_ handled the Seddie arc, _Victorious _did a much better job with the Bade relationship. While the writers tried to acknowledge the problems with Seddie, but did a poor job at it. This is going to be my main point in this essay, that the Seddie relationship didn't work because of the poor writing. I should start by giving more context to the Seddie relationship.

The Seddie relationship was all about conflicting personalities. Sam was your typical tomboy, a bit lazy, and liked to get into trouble. Freddie was a nerd, kind of uptight, and mostly well-behaved. Another thing is that Sam and Freddie didn't really know each other that well before the series. While Carly had a long friendship with Sam and was neighbors with Freddie, Sam and Freddie only knew each other through Carly. In fact, Freddie's only friends with Sam and Carly because they need a tech guy for the show. Thus, it makes sense for Sam and Freddie to not be on friendly terms initially.

While Sam and Freddie seemed at odds, there were moments where they showed that they cared for each other. One episode that showed that was "iKiss". Sam finds out that Freddie's never kissed a girl. She then tells this to their audience while filming _iCarly_, to get back at him for a prank he pulled on her. She regrets this and makes an attempt to make things right. The episode ends with her apologizing to him. The two then kiss so they can experience what it's like. I'll talk more about this episode later.

These moments of affection, combined with their belligerent attitudes towards each other, is a big reason why fans flocked to the Seddie ship. If you look at a lot of popular ships, you often see characters who are at odds with each other and fight. Many Seddie fans assumed that the reason Sam picked on Freddie was because she was hiding feelings from him. Another reason why the Seddie ship became popular was because shippers typically project themselves into their pairings. A lot of fans saw themselves in Sam. I think this is because Sam wasn't perfect. Let's compare her to Carly. Carly is the star of the show, very popular, and more feminine than Sam. People who didn't see themselves as Carly, were more likely to identify as Sam. Those fans ultimately wanted Sam to end up with Freddie so that she could get the boy and be happy.

Personally, I liked Sam in the early episodes of _iCarly_. She was a fun character and provided a good foil for Carly. However, things started to change. As the show went on her character became more exaggerated. She became more anti-social and her treatment of Freddie became more brutal. She started to become a lot more physical with him, to the point of being abusive. An infamous example of this is in the episode "iMeet Fred". In it, Sam beats him with a tennis racket and throws him out of a treehouse. Why? Because Freddie said he wasn't a fan of the web show _Fred_. This is an episode that most fans don't like and pretend didn't happen.

This change in Sam's personality might have something to do with the show's creator, Dan Schneider. Dan seems to like this kind of humor, as his shows often have a female character who torments people, usually getting away with it. _Drake & Josh_ had Megan, _Victorious_ had Jade, and _iCarly_ had Sam. However, Sam is different from Megan and Jade as she's not an antagonist. She's meant to be Carly's friend. This reflected badly on Carly, since she wouldn't try to reign in Sam's behavior. It gave the impression that Carly didn't really care about Freddie. Now I'm sure many fans will argue that the show was supposed to be about the jokes and about shipping. The thing is, Sam and Freddie do get together for a while in the show. If it was just supposed to be a comedy, why do the Seddie arc?

**Dan and Shipping**

In season 4 of _iCarly_, there's an episode called "iStart a Fan War". In it, the iCarly crew goes to a fan convention. They find out that their fans are obsessed with shipping, arguing passionately over who belongs with who. Eventually, Carly gives a speech about how fans shouldn't obsess over shipping and focus on the comedy. This is obviously meant for the shippers in the _iCarly_ fanbase. Fans had gotten pretty passionate about their respective ships, and there was a lot of animosity between those who shipped Creddie and those who shipped Seddie. However, Season 4 ended with the episode "iOMG". In this episode, we learn that Sam has feelings for Freddie and kisses him. This was followed by four episodes which focused on the Seddie relationship, ending with the two breaking up.

It seems odd for the show to have an episode that denounces shipping, only to follow it up with an entire story arc that seems to be giving the shippers what they want. Why would Dan do this? Both major ships seem to think that Dan was on their sides. People who ship Seddie think that "IStart a Fan War" was directed towards the Creddiers and that Dan wanted Sam and Freddie together. Creddiers think that "IStart a Fan War" was directed towards Seddie and Dan only did the Seddie arc to throw them a bone. He did break them up after all. What do I think? I think Dan wanted everyone to be happy.

If you look at how Dan handles shipping in his shows, he often tries to appease both sides of the fanbase. Look at _Victorious_. There's an episode of _Victorious_ called "Tori and Jade's Play Date". In this episode, Tori and Jade are forced to hang out together. This episode is popular with fans of the Jade/Tori relationship (Jori) because this relationship gets a lot of focus, and there are a lot of hints that the two might have feelings towards each other. Despite being a Jori shipper myself, I don't really like this episode. Why? Because I feel like this episode was more an attempt to throw a bone to the Jori shippers, and not a genuine attempt to explore their relationship. Especially since Jade goes back to being nasty to Tori after this episode. It feels like they're throwing away that character development.

However, that's not why I'm bringing this episode up. The reason why is that the episode is ambiguous with regards to whether Jade and Tori have feelings for each other. While their are a bunch of hints that they might be romantically interested in each other, it doesn't outright confirm this and there's enough wiggle room that you could argue that they're just good friends. Now, I get that Dan didn't think he could get away with showing a lesbian relationship on his show. And I'm not saying that Tori and Jade should get romantically involved. I'd be happy with them just being good friends. The problem is it's clear he was trying to appeal to the fans who wanted a romantic relationship between the two, without actually having to commit to it. It feels like he did this so as not to anger any part of the fanbase. Obviously he gave the Jori shippers what they wanted, but kept it ambiguous so as not to turn off people who aren't Jori fans. And this isn't the only episode of _Victorious_ where he did this.

In "Jade Gets Crushed", Andre realizes he has romantic feelings for Jade. He's conflicted about this as he's good friends with Beck and doesn't want to steal his girlfriend. The episode ends with Andre seemingly giving up on Jade and moving on. Again, the ending is ambiguous as to whether Andre really moved on or if he still has feelings for Jade. To me, this episode was trying to appeal to fans of Jandre, but also not anger fans of Bade. The episode also teases some other ships. Andre and Tori almost kiss and we find out Tori has Jade's clothes in her closet. It seems like Dan was trying to throw a bone to as many shippers as possible.

Now let's look at _iCarly_. I mentioned the episode "iKiss". That ends with Sam and Freddie kissing. Obviously this was Dan showing support for Seddie. Actually not really. Sam and Freddie kissed because neither of them had kissed someone before and they wanted to try it out. Like the episodes of _Victorious_, it's ambiguous whether they had romantic feelings for each other or if they were just experimenting. There's a later episode called "iSaved Your Life". In it, Freddie saves Carly from a car that's about to hit her. Freddie gets injured in the process and Carly starts nursing him back to health. During this time, Carly seems to develop romantic feelings for Freddie. However, Freddie realizes that she only has these feelings because he's injured. The episode ends with the two breaking their relationship off, but leaves the possibility that they might explore a relationship when Freddie gets better. Another ambiguous ending. If you ship Creddie, you could argue that they have feelings for each other, but will wait to get together. If you ship Seddie, you could argue that Carly was only interested in Freddie because he was injured.

Dan seems to be trying to appease both the Creddie shippers and the Seddie shippers by having different episodes that tease those relationships, but ending ambiguously so as not to offend the other group of shippers. This continues after the Seddie arc. Despite breaking up, there are some episodes that hint that Sam and Freddie might still have feelings for each other. Now the show does end with Freddie and Carly kissing. So, does that mean Dan supports Creddie? I don't think so. Remember, afterwards Sam went on to be in _Sam & Cat. _There's an episode in that show where Freddie shows up and it strongly suggests that he still has feelings for Sam. In short, I think Dan made sure that both Creddie and Seddie shippers got enough hints that their ship was the right one. However, instead of making things better, I think this had the opposite effect. This teasing only served to add fuel to the fan wars.

**The Seddie Arc**

With all that out of the way, let's talk about the Seddie arc. As I said before, it started "iOMG". In that episode, Sam admitted she had feelings for Freddie and the two kissed. The next episode was "iLost My Mind". In that episode, Sam checks herself into a mental institution, because she thinks it's crazy for her to have feelings Freddie. The episode have Carly and Freddie trying to free Sam from the institution. Carly spends the episode trying to convince Sam that she's not crazy and she should get together with Freddie. Eventually, she decides to film their next episode of iCarly from the mental institution. She asks the fans to call in and show their support for Sam and Freddie. This seems hypocritical considering the episode "iStart a Fan War" was about how the fanbase shouldn't be obsessed with shipping. Now they're encouraging fans to obsess over shipping. The other problem I have with this episode is that no one seems to care what Freddie thinks about dating Sam. Only towards the end of the episode does Freddie bring this up, but that's right before kissing Sam. One does wonder what would've happened if Freddie didn't want to date Sam. You could even argue that Freddie only started dating Sam because he was worried about her mental health. Overall, despite my misgivings, it was an okay episode. It's much better than the next two.

The next episode is "iDate Sam & Freddie". It doesn't really make a good case for why Sam and Freddie should be together. They spend most of the episode arguing with each other. Much of the episode is them going to Carly and asking her to mediate their conflicts. The thing is, all Carly really does is to tell both of them that they're right. For instance, Freddie gets mad at Sam because she filled his teacher's car with bees after giving Freddie a bad grade. Carly says that Sam shouldn't have done that, but that Freddie should've appreciated what she did. This illustrates two problems I have with the Seddie arc overall. First, the writers didn't tone down Sam's behavior. In most episodes, her treatment of Freddie is borderline abusive. If Seddie is going to work, Sam needs to change. She doesn't need to do a complete 180, but she should treat Freddie better. Second, the show tries to treat Freddie like he's equally at fault for their fights. However, Sam is the one who's at fault in most of these fights. Sure, Freddie doesn't come off good in this episode. Both he and Sam keep using Carly as a mediator to the point that it starts taking a toll on her. However, for the most part he comes off as the reasonable one. Really, it just seems like the writers don't understand the problems with the Seddie relationship. They understand that they fight a lot, but don't understand why. The episode doesn't really end. Carly tells Sam and Freddie off for fighting so much and it ends after that. There's no real resolution.

The next episode in the Seddie arc is "iCan't Take it". I think this is the worst episode of the arc. It starts with Carly asking Sam how her relationship with Freddie is going. Sam tells her that it's going good and they don't fight as much anymore. Carly asks if she still hits Freddie, and Sam says she still does, but not in the face. So yeah, Sam still physically abuses Freddie. To make matters worse, the episode is trying to show that Sam and Freddie is such a cute couple. Most of their interactions are saccharine and have them getting on unusually well together. The conflict of the episode is that people want to break them up. Carly wants to break them up because now that they're dating, they don't spend much time with her and it's getting in the way of the show. Gibby wants to break them up because Sam is taking out her anger on him now that she's being nicer to Freddie (I assume only when other people are around). And Mrs. Benson wants to break them up because she doesn't want her son dating someone like Sam. The episode treats her like she's in the wrong, but she's right to not want Sam dating Freddie. Sam hasn't shown that she's changed.

So how do they go about breaking up Sam and Freddie? Well, earlier in the episode it's mentioned that Freddie wanted to get into this cutting edge science program. He finds out that his application to the program has been rejected. Carly reveals that the reason for this is that Sam deliberately sabotaged his application, months before they got together. So the three of them tell this to Freddie and it looks like he and Sam are going to break up. However, Carly feels guilty and tells Freddie to forgive Sam. She makes the case that Sam did that long before they got together and she had feelings for him. According to Carly, Sam's changed since then. And normally I'd agree. People do change and it's not fair to judge someone by what they did years ago. The problem is Sam didn't really change. The episode outright states she still hits him. The only reason she's able to be nice to him is by taking out her anger on someone else. This is clearly an unhealthy relationship, but the episode treats it like they're such a sweet couple. At least "iDate Sam & Freddie" understood that their fighting wasn't good.

The final episode of the Seddie arc is "iLove You", and it's the episode where they break up. So why do they break up? Well, the episode starts with Carly, Freddie, and Sam talking to each other. Carly realizes that Sam and Freddie don't spend that much time together. She suggests that they try to share their hobbies so they can spend more time together. They try that. Freddie takes Sam to his train club and Sam takes Freddie to visit her uncles in prison. Both go as well as you'd expect. In the end, they realize they don't have much in common and break up. This episode really shows that the writers don't get the Seddie relationship. The last episode had Sam admit she hits Freddie. You can't follow that up with an episode that says "The reason Sam and Freddie can't work as a couple because they don't have any shared hobbies."

The reason why I think _Victorious_ handled the Bade relationship better was because at least there the writers understood why it was unhealthy. Jade was constantly jealous and tried to control Beck. The episode where they broke up, "The Worst Couple", acknowledged this and made it the reason why they broke up. The Seddie arc should've ended the same way, with the show acknowledging that Sam's behavior was toxic. Of course, if you did that, you might anger the Seddie fans and Dan did not do that. It was much easier to just say they didn't have much in common and that's why they couldn't work out. It's a safe ending that let's the writers revisit the relationship in the future without having to drastically change Sam's character.

**Conclusion**

If there's a lesson to be learned from the Seddie arc, is that characters need to grow, even if you're writing a comedy. The show's refusal to let Sam grow and mature is a big reason why the Seddie arc couldn't work. If they had toned her down so she wasn't abusive, I can see her and Freddie working as a couple. But the writers didn't do that. In comedy, it's tempting to rely on a joke you know works, but sometimes you need to abandon the joke. Sam's antics were funny at first, but became disturbing when the show wanted us to take Sam and Freddie seriously as a couple. If you ship Seddie, don't take this as a personal attack. As I said before, my issue is with the writing and not the couple. And what are your thoughts? This is just my opinion and I want to know what are your thoughts. Feel free to tell me.


End file.
